Add "QubesIncoming" shortcut to left pane of Nautilus "File Chooser"

[kbrn]

Qubes OS version (e.g., R3.1):

Any

Affected TemplateVMs (e.g., fedora-23, if applicable):

fedora-23, debian-8

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Expected behavior:

To have "QubesIncoming" shortcuts in Nautilus "File Chooser"'s left pane, along with "user", "Desktop", "File System", etc.

Actual behavior:

Does not have it.

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

General notes:

I find myself always having to clumsily navigate home, then to QubesIncoming. Seems Nautilus on Qubes should assume frequent navigation to that folder.

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Related issues:

[andrewdavidwong]

I can see how this might be useful, but it seems to depend on personal preference. @bnvk, do you think this would be a good idea?

[andrewdavidwong]

I can see how this might be useful, but it seems to depend on personal preference. @bnvk, do you think this would be a good idea?

[jpouellet]

Adding file:///home/user/QubesIncoming to ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks is sufficient to achieve this:

Putting it in the upper "permanent" part and giving it a nice little Qubes icon would require patching:

• https://github.com/GNOME/nautilus/blob/bb433582165da10ab07337d707ea448703c3865f/src/nautilus-icon-names.h
• https://github.com/GNOME/nautilus/blob/533f828d4d4dcbd44540a9403b80d793153428e3/src/nautilus-file-utilities.c#L726-L749

[jpouellet]

Adding file:///home/user/QubesIncoming to ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks is sufficient to achieve this:

Putting it in the upper "permanent" part and giving it a nice little Qubes icon would require patching:

• https://github.com/GNOME/nautilus/blob/bb433582165da10ab07337d707ea448703c3865f/src/nautilus-icon-names.h
• https://github.com/GNOME/nautilus/blob/533f828d4d4dcbd44540a9403b80d793153428e3/src/nautilus-file-utilities.c#L726-L749

[jpouellet]

AFAICT we do not currently patch Nautilus at all, so IMO I don't think the fancier way is worth the extra maintenance cost.

[jpouellet]

AFAICT we do not currently patch Nautilus at all, so IMO I don't think the fancier way is worth the extra maintenance cost.

[andrewdavidwong]

I don't think it should be added there by default. At most, we could document this so that users can do it on their own.

[andrewdavidwong]

I don't think it should be added there by default. At most, we could document this so that users can do it on their own.

[jpouellet]

I don't think it should be added there by default. At most, we could document this so that users can do it on their own.

I'm not a UX person, and I'm happy to defer to those who are, but I don't see why not. It's likely regularly accessed by many and I think can be considered a well-known standard dir in Qubes.

We already add Qubes-specific things like menu items for "{Copy,Move} To Other AppVM...", and I think this makes sense as a corresponding receiving-side efficiency/ease-of-use improvement. No?

[jpouellet]

I don't think it should be added there by default. At most, we could document this so that users can do it on their own.

I'm not a UX person, and I'm happy to defer to those who are, but I don't see why not. It's likely regularly accessed by many and I think can be considered a well-known standard dir in Qubes.

We already add Qubes-specific things like menu items for "{Copy,Move} To Other AppVM...", and I think this makes sense as a corresponding receiving-side efficiency/ease-of-use improvement. No?

[andrewdavidwong]

I'm not a UX person, and I'm happy to defer to those who are, but I don't see why not. It's likely regularly accessed by many and I think can be considered a well-known standard dir in Qubes.

I don't see why those should be the deciding criteria. (Maybe they should be, but I don't see why they should be.)

We already add Qubes-specific things like menu items for "{Copy,Move} To Other AppVM...", and I think this makes sense as a corresponding receiving-side efficiency/ease-of-use improvement. No?

Maybe, but I would find it annoying and immediately remove it. There have been suggestions about auto-deleting the QubesIncoming dir when empty, so clearly there are users who choose not to keep that dir around. It would be strange to have a broken shortcut by default.

[andrewdavidwong]

I'm not a UX person, and I'm happy to defer to those who are, but I don't see why not. It's likely regularly accessed by many and I think can be considered a well-known standard dir in Qubes.

I don't see why those should be the deciding criteria. (Maybe they should be, but I don't see why they should be.)

We already add Qubes-specific things like menu items for "{Copy,Move} To Other AppVM...", and I think this makes sense as a corresponding receiving-side efficiency/ease-of-use improvement. No?

Maybe, but I would find it annoying and immediately remove it. There have been suggestions about auto-deleting the QubesIncoming dir when empty, so clearly there are users who choose not to keep that dir around. It would be strange to have a broken shortcut by default.

[andrewdavidwong]

(Note that it would be broken by default for everyone, since QubesIncoming doesn't exist until some file is copied/moved into that VM.)

[andrewdavidwong]

(Note that it would be broken by default for everyone, since QubesIncoming doesn't exist until some file is copied/moved into that VM.)

[kbrn]

Why auto-delete QubesIncoming? To make it more difficult to determine that the system is Qubes? If so, it seems a pointless gesture when there are lots other infoleaks (e.g. kernel version).

Maybe the default should actually be to assume this directory exists, and to ensure the templates have empty QubesIncoming directories.

Why would you find it annoying?

[kbrn]

Why auto-delete QubesIncoming? To make it more difficult to determine that the system is Qubes? If so, it seems a pointless gesture when there are lots other infoleaks (e.g. kernel version).

Maybe the default should actually be to assume this directory exists, and to ensure the templates have empty QubesIncoming directories.

Why would you find it annoying?

[andrewdavidwong]

Why auto-delete QubesIncoming? To make it more difficult to determine that the system is Qubes? If so, it seems a pointless gesture when there are lots other infoleaks (e.g. kernel version).

That's a different issue. I'm not arguing in favor of auto-deleting QubesIncoming (at least not here). I'm just pointing out that the suggestion has been made, which shows that at least some users choose not to keep the QubesIncoming dir around.

Maybe the default should actually be to assume this directory exists, and to ensure the templates have empty QubesIncoming directories.

Maybe, but that would be an additional change from the current default.

Why would you find it annoying?

Oh, it's just personal preference. I just don't like having any extra or empty directories or shortcuts in most of my VMs.

[andrewdavidwong]

Why auto-delete QubesIncoming? To make it more difficult to determine that the system is Qubes? If so, it seems a pointless gesture when there are lots other infoleaks (e.g. kernel version).

That's a different issue. I'm not arguing in favor of auto-deleting QubesIncoming (at least not here). I'm just pointing out that the suggestion has been made, which shows that at least some users choose not to keep the QubesIncoming dir around.

Maybe the default should actually be to assume this directory exists, and to ensure the templates have empty QubesIncoming directories.

Maybe, but that would be an additional change from the current default.

Why would you find it annoying?

Oh, it's just personal preference. I just don't like having any extra or empty directories or shortcuts in most of my VMs.

[jpouellet]

FWIW, when you remove the other empty dirs you may not want (Music, Pictures, Videos, etc.) they too still appear in the bookmarks bar. (At least as observed on my system with nautilus-3.20.4-1.)

[jpouellet]

FWIW, when you remove the other empty dirs you may not want (Music, Pictures, Videos, etc.) they too still appear in the bookmarks bar. (At least as observed on my system with nautilus-3.20.4-1.)

[andrewdavidwong]

FWIW, when you remove the other empty dirs you may not want (Music, Pictures, Videos, etc.) they too still appear in the bookmarks bar. (At least as observed on my system with nautilus-3.20.4-1.)

You can permanently remove those through Nautilus (and/or editing the relevant files).

Oh, it's just personal preference. I just don't like having any extra or empty directories or shortcuts in most of my VMs.

BTW, I'm not suggesting here that we should do anything based on my preference. In fact, I'm suggesting the opposite: We shouldn't do anything based on anyone's mere preferences. Instead, we should act in a more principled, objective way, whether that's deferring to UX experts, keeping the upstream distro's defaults, or just presenting a solid argument one way or the other (that doesn't appeal to preferences).

[andrewdavidwong]

FWIW, when you remove the other empty dirs you may not want (Music, Pictures, Videos, etc.) they too still appear in the bookmarks bar. (At least as observed on my system with nautilus-3.20.4-1.)

You can permanently remove those through Nautilus (and/or editing the relevant files).

Oh, it's just personal preference. I just don't like having any extra or empty directories or shortcuts in most of my VMs.

BTW, I'm not suggesting here that we should do anything based on my preference. In fact, I'm suggesting the opposite: We shouldn't do anything based on anyone's mere preferences. Instead, we should act in a more principled, objective way, whether that's deferring to UX experts, keeping the upstream distro's defaults, or just presenting a solid argument one way or the other (that doesn't appeal to preferences).